The discovery of a new taste cell
neo.life
neo.life
> Not everyone agrees with the current breakdown of taste into five key flavors, and some scientists have proposed that additional tastes could exist, and some of these potential new tastes have been identified.
> “There are quite a number of additional candidates out there,” says Purdue University nutritional scientist Richard Mattes, who coined the word oleogustus (fatty taste) to describe one of these proposed new sensory flavors. Calcium, carbon dioxide, starch, and short-chain carbohydrates also have all been variously proposed as possible new tastes. “But they are by no means accepted broadly in the scientific community,” Mattes says.
> The evidence for fat as a taste is overwhelming, Mattes says. There is at least one receptor found on human taste cells, called CD36, that can detect fat. There is also a mechanism for it to transduce signals to the brain, and these signals seem to be tuned specifically for fat. There are also sensory experiments where people can sensitively detect fat on their tongues.
> ...
> The evolutionary argument is that humans have the ability to detect a specific type of fat known as free fatty acids, which are present in rancid food. The food industry has been aware of this for decades and goes to great lengths to eliminate free fatty acids from food. The reason why olive oil is cold pressed, for instance, is to reduce the temperature-dependent oxidation of the oil, which produces these free fatty acids and fouls the taste of the oil.
They are calling this new taste receptor a "broadly receptive taste cell."
If these "broadly receptive taste cells" are disabled, then all of those 3 tastes are no longer perceptible. This indicates that the brain is looking for the simultaneous firing of this receptor and another more specialized receptor for each of these 3 tastes. If either signal is missing, then the taste is not able to be detected.
When you click through to the actual study in the third paragraph it's a lot clearer.
The stuff about the evidence for a fat taste receptor existing actually has nothing to do with the study they are supposedly covering.
It's my opinion that the headline is EXTREMELY misleading, for both the reason above as well as the fact that before this study, everyone associated one taste cell with one taste, so given those priors, you would expect the discovery of a new type of taste cell to indicate that a new taste had been discovered.
Here's the relevant portion from TFA with the fluff removed. Emphasis mine.
> The study involved characterizing isolated batches of broadly receptive taste cells for their electrical signaling as well as extensive behavioral experiments in which mice placed in special cages with different bottles of solution were trained to seek out certain bottles that offered tastes they like. Medler’s team showed that when mice lose their broadly responsive taste cells, the animals basically behave like they can’t taste bitter, sweet, AND umami.